Take Away English-April Fool's Day 愚人节

Ha ha! Tricked you!

1st April is a day to be careful, or you could easily get tricked by someone. It’s April Fool’s Day, a day when people traditionally like to try to make a fool of someone else and laugh at them.

There are lots of theories surrounding the origins of the day, but one explanation is connected with the change in the calendar in the 16th century, which meant that 1st April was no longer the beginning of the year. Those who still celebrated¹ the New Year on 1st April were called fools.

So what kind of pranks² do people play on April Fool’s Day? Well, there are lots of simple tricks that you can play on your friends. For example, you could wear a black sweater and pull a piece of white thread through it, so that people try to pull it off. You could change the time on someone’s alarm clock so that they’re late for work. Or glue a coin to the floor and see how many people try to pick it up.

All these are small-scale practical jokes which you might play on one other person or a few people. But there’s also a tradition of large companies attempting to fool a lot of people. For example a burger restaurant once claimed that they were introducing a left-handed burger!

In particular, the media often try to make people believe something which is not true. Newspapers publish some ludicrous stories every year, although some of them are actually true. It’s entertaining to try to guess which stories are true and which are fake³. In the April Fool’s stories, they often include a clue to the fact that it’s a joke. For example the name of an ‘expert’ quoted in the article might be an anagram of ‘April Fool’.

Radio and television programmes have also fooled many people by broadcasting reports which are untrue. One programme announced the invention of an amazing new weight-loss product - water which contained minus calories!

And one of the most famous hoaxes⁴ ever was broadcast by the BBC itself in 1957! A very serious news programme called Panorama⁵ reported on the poor spaghetti harvest in Switzerland, and showed pictures of farmers picking spaghetti from trees! Hundreds of people were taken in and wrote to the BBC asking how to grow their own spaghetti.

GLOSSARY 词汇表
tricked 被骗了，开玩笑 theories 推断，理论 calendar 日历 small-scale 小规模的 left-handed 左手的 ludicrous 滑稽的;荒唐的 anagram 拼字游戏 weight-loss 减肥 hoaxes 骗局 harvest 收成，收获	to make a fool of 把某人耍了 origins 由来，起源 pranks 恶作剧，鬼把戏 practical jokes 恶作剧 publish 出版 fake 假的，假货 broadcasting 广播 calories 卡[热量的单位] spaghetti 意大利细面条 taken in 相信了

 

1 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

2 pranks   

n.玩笑，恶作剧( prank的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Frank's errancy consisted mostly of pranks. 法兰克错在老喜欢恶作剧。 来自辞典例句
• He always leads in pranks and capers. 他老是带头胡闹和开玩笑。 来自辞典例句

3 fake   

vt.伪造，造假，假装；n.假货，赝品

参考例句：

• He can tell a fake from the original.他能分辨出赝品和真品。
• You can easily fake up an excuse to avoid going out with him.你可以很容易地编造一个借口而不与他一同外出。

4 hoaxes   

n.恶作剧，戏弄( hoax的名词复数 )v.开玩笑骗某人，戏弄某人( hoax的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The disc jockey, a young separatist named Pierre Brassard, has made his name with such hoaxes. 这位名叫彼埃尔 - 布拉萨尔的音乐节目主持人，是一名年轻的分离主义者，以制造这类骗局闻名。 来自百科语句
• This chain-letter hoaxes, has mutated over the years. 这一骗局多年来在互联网上不断发展和变异。 来自互联网

5 panorama   

n.全景，全景画，全景摄影，全景照片[装置]

参考例句：

• A vast panorama of the valley lay before us.山谷的广阔全景展现在我们面前。
• A flourishing and prosperous panorama spread out before our eyes.一派欣欣向荣的景象展现在我们的眼前。